34 replies to this topic

[LambyToes]

Okay, I did a search and found nothing on this fine show. I just bought the full set of episodes and was kinda sad that it was cancelled all over again. This is the case of a show that started off completely cheesy then elevated itself toward the end. Once they stopped focusing on Cleo's antics so much, and started building a mythology which revolved around the only real actress of the three (Hel, Gina Torres) it got really good.

I think in the begining it kind of suffered because they didn't seem to have a full mastery of it's universe but the more it went on, they seemed to really get a handle on what everything was and how it all fit together. The finale was strange, it consisted of the one character we'd never seen and the main villain rehashing scenes from earlier in the series. Ultimately, the show's premise and universe grew and matured far faster than the writing and ploting. I also liked (this is true of Xena as well) the sexy muscular female body type that was promoted on the show. Those were the only shows where you could see these types of bodies on television. Gina, Vicky, Renee, and Lucy, even Jennifer had nice bodies and didn't look frail or bony at all.

*sigh* I wish there were at least about a season more of the show.

[LambyToes]

In the end I couldn't even fully disagree with Kreegan and his logic. Yah, I thought about the Matrix connection as I was catching up with the series this weekend. The machines even looked similar. I kept finding myself comparing Hel to Zoi. Hel was just as ass kicking but also very warm and passionate unlike the more stoic Zoi. I would love for her to book a new steady tv sci fi gig. I know she's ambivelant about sci fi/ fantasy now but she doesn't have to be the aggresive fighter character I just want to see her again in something I'd be interested in watching.

[LambyToes]

Now or Noir was a real anamaly because even Cleo wasn't acting like a total ditz. Jennifer Sky has a lovely singing voice. If they had had another season I would have liked to see more of Marcus and that other Voice team we met in the series finale.

[LostinFlight]

I really liked this show when it was on the air. It actually had a ground base and good plot lines. But I didn't know it was realased on DVD. When did this happen?

[LTG]

This is still one of the best theme songs ever.

[Anthrophile]

I was pleasantly shocked by the depth of the ending.

[LostinFlight]

I still remember the lyrics of the song, and it's been years since I heard it.

[legraf]

So nice to see this float up to the first page again! Nice memories.

This show was cheesy, granted, but I certainly did get sucked in, and really regretted that I'd never see more of these characters. The background politics of the underground were interesting as well, as they slowly developed/were revealed/were thought-up. :)

Considering all the "yeah right" moments and ongoing improbability, I feel a bit silly that my main criticism of the show was that the Betrayers were so uneven - in some episodes one could face off against our three (two anyway!) heroines for half the episode, in others Betrayers were dropping left and right. Sort of the same criticism of the Terminator movies actually - if one terminator's that effective, even against the human's "future" weapons, they hardly needed to be disguised too.

[ShadowDenizen]

I still remember the lyrics of the song, and it's been years since I heard it.

Ditto.
(Though I confess I own the DVD's.)

[Bitterswete]

One of my problems with the show was it only lasted half an hour. I just don't think half an hour (including commercials) is enough to develop a serious plot. Well, most of the time. What I remember is that, just when it looked like an episode was building to something really good...it was over. And I think that probably hurt the development of the storylines and characters quite a bit.

[magicdog]

One of my problems with the show was it only lasted half an hour. I just don't think half an hour (including commercials) is enough to develop a serious plot. Well, most of the time. What I remember is that, just when it looked like an episode was building to something really good...it was over. And I think that probably hurt the development of the storylines and characters quite a bit.

Big word! That was one of my pet peeves about this show. It really needed to be an hour long.

I still remember the lyrics of the song, and it's been years since I heard it.

Yeah - it was fun. It was a reworked version of the Zager & Evans hit song, "In The Year, 2525".

[LTG]

One of my problems with the show was it only lasted half an hour.

I think the were making a conscious effort to bring back the half-hour action-adventure show. Back in the '50s and '60s, there were lots of half-hour detective and spy shows, but the form disappeared later in the '60s, when half-hour shows all became sitcoms and hour shows were dramas. The downside of those half-hour shows was that they didn't have a huge amount of time for character development or really complex plots, but the upside was that they had to be really tightly paced, which made for a fun show. (One of the very best of those '60s shows was Honey West, about a female private eye with a very cute male assistant and an eccentric aunt who owned an ocelot. I long for the day it will be available on DVD.)

Edited by LTG, Oct 18, 2007 @ 9:33 AM.

[Tzigone]

Also, though, in the '50s, a half-hour television show likely had more screentime than one does now. Shows get shorter and shorter as more and more ad time is added. I think half-hour shows were more like 26 minutes then, and 22 now? 4 minutes doesn't seem like a lot, but it makes a difference. And I think one-hour shows used to be like 53 minutes long, and now they're like 40.

[LostinFlight]

One of my problems with the show was it only lasted half an hour.

Once their compaignon show, Jack of All Trades got cancelled, Cleopatra was made into an hour long. It didn't last a very long time after that.

[Bitterswete]

Once their compaignon show, Jack of All Trades got cancelled, Cleopatra was made into an hour long.

I don't remember that, which means I'd stopped watching it by then.

I think the were making a conscious effort to bring back the half-hour action-adventure show.

Yep. Although Cleopatra 2525 and Jack of All Trades caught the tail end of that. There were actually a lot of half hour drama/action shows made back in the late 80s and 90s, like Superboy, Swamp Thing, Werewolf and Dracula. (My hazy memory seems to vaguely recall some non-genre, half hour dramas, too.) But none of these shows seemed to catch on.

Edited by Bitterswete, Oct 18, 2007 @ 11:29 AM.

[Flaregun]

There were actually a lot of half hour drama/action shows made back in the late 80s and 90s, like Superboy, Swamp Thing, Werewolf and Dracula. (My hazy memory seems to vaguely recall some non-genre, half hour dramas, too.) But none of these shows seemed to catch on.

Believe it or not, another show that was originally planed along those lines was Law & Order. Or at least, the original intention behind the famous "find the body & solve the crime in the first half, take them to trial in the second" format was that for syndication, the episodes would actually be split apart and marketed as two seperate shows, a half hour cop show & a half hour legal drama. The idea was that at the time hour long shows were extremely difficult to sell in syndication, while ancient sitcoms and even some half-hour dramas like Twilight Zone were still selling like hotcakes, and this was thought to be a way around that. Except by the time the show had produced enough episodes for syndication, the explosion of cable had changed the syndication market so much that the bias against hour long shows was erased, and by then the strict "1/2 hour cops, 1/2 hour lawyers" breakdown of the format was starting to be loosened up a bit in any case.

but anyway, I suspect also that by the late 80's/early 90's TV writers might have just plain forgotten how to effectively write a half-hour non sitcom TV show. And also the audiences by this time had grown up expecting the sort of character development & such that you just can't effectively do in a half hour format, so maybe they just weren't willing to accept a that actually was written appropriately for a half hour length. From the episodes that I saw, Cleopatra 2525 never felt comfortable with it's short running time.

Interestingly, the original Twilight Zone actually had this problem in reverse: somewhere around the fourth or fifth season, they tried expanding it from a half hour show to a full hour, but it didn't seem to work; the stories were thought to meander aimlessly, the tension of the half hour eps was diffused, and the experiment was soon abandoned. Serling had previously written extended teleplays for those live Playhouse 90 type shows, you know he knew how to produce more than a half hour's worth of dramatic television at a clip, but apparently he couldn't make it work for Twilight Zone.

The downside of those half-hour shows was that they didn't have a huge amount of time for character development or really complex plots, but the upside was that they had to be really tightly paced, which made for a fun show.

I think that's why I've always been inordinately fond of Dragnet. The weird clipped style of dialog was like something from another planet even back then, but it, the music, the pacing, the no-nonsense robot-like characters, even that little denouncement at the end where the crooks' sentences were read all just perfectly fit together to make a show that really moved and carried you along with it. I don't need to know about Joe Friday's messy divorce or his lesbian daughter with the drinking problem anymore than he needs to know the life story of the robbery witness he's interviewing. That's what "Just the facts, Ma'm" was all about; shut up and get back to the plot. How could you not love a show that actually says that about itself before you get a chance to? I still watch Dragnet whenever my DVR can find it, although these days all they ever air are those '68 color episodes which border on knowingly camp.

The original Zagar & Evans "In the Year 2525" was one of the most annoying, ridiculous songs ever written, and the adaptation made for the title song of this show is somehow even worse.

[Nikki528]

Memories. I had forgotten about this show until I stumbled upon this thread. I, too, remember the words to the theme song despite not having hear it in years. It was a great show (and I always stuck around to watch it after Xena). Maybe I'll get the dvd set...but I don't know about paying 45 beans for it.

[caper24]

Just saw Vicki Pratt on Ghost Whisperer the other night. She looks good. Did a good job with the part, imho.

[BKs Nimo]

So, I've recently discovered Hulu and it has all of the eps of Cleopatra. Good times. I liked this show, even though it was ultra campy. I wish that it hadn't gotten canceled--or at least, was able to phase out and end with tying up some storylines.

Edited by BKs Nimo, May 3, 2008 @ 11:36 PM.

[boniface3535]

I used to love this show (that's where I got the 3535 in my name). I thought it was a nice, fluffy addition to syndicated television, but alas it was not meant to be. At least Gina Torres is getting pretty good work these days.

[cutecouple]

Hulu doesn't seem to have all the episodes any more, only the 1/2 hour episodes, which is still a lot. I'd guess they're driving the DVD sales. Watching 'seriously' for the first time. Still kinda fun, in a cheezy way. It reminds me a little of the Matrix.

Edited by cutecouple, Aug 2, 2009 @ 6:33 PM.

[AliasBatro]

As I recall, Renaissance Pictures decided to gamble on producing two half-hour shows, reflecting quite different genres, rather than on one hour-long series to replace Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Ergo, the joint creation of sci-fi actioner Cleopatra 2525 and wacky pseudohistorical comedy Jack Of All Trades. The studio facilities were shared between them: three days a week on one series and three more on the other.

Unexpectedly, JOAT got the axe before C2525, as I would have thought that a Bruce Campbell doing his wiseguy comedy routine, on a series that utilized more easily created Napoleonic-era replicas, would be a better match to the thirty-minute format than an original drama series that necessarily required the fresh creation of a futuristic world.

[Bruinsfan]

Yes, but Cleopatra 2525 had a much higher quotient of hot women in skimpy outfits kicking ass, which appealed to both teenage boys and the core female audience of Xena.

Edited by Bruinsfan, Aug 2, 2009 @ 11:08 PM.

[Tulse]

And, from my perspective, C2525 was a much more interesting show -- it had a premise that hadn't been worked over to death previously, some interesting visual bits, and some solid energy. As I recollect JOAT, pretty much the only thing it had going for it was Bruce -- otherwise it was a terribly cheesy, cheap-looking period adventure-comedy.

Edited by Tulse, Aug 3, 2009 @ 12:41 PM.

[xtreme]

See, I always felt that 2525 got cancelled just as it was getting interesting. I mean we had the Hel/Helen plot, Cleo finally stopping that whine about how she prefered the past. Joker gone lunatic. Evil mind reading chick... Oh and Voice finally getting around to starting the final war against the Bailey army.

I think the main problem though was the over focus on the one cell... If they had maybe made the first season about Cleo in the new time on her own, then had s2 as her settled into the future and helping Sarge and Hel... They might have had more luck... We still could have done Christmasville and the famous Striptease scene, they just would have been framed a little differently.

[Nightbreak]

I picked up the used DVD set recently and got through side 1 of the first disc. I was going to pass on the rest of the episodes, but seeing the comments here has made me decide to keep going. If I can scoop JoaT too, I might keep that one, as I have an interest in Napoleonic-era relics. *immediately considers a Warehouse 13 crossover*

[cutecouple]

Needed a pick me up, watched a few episodes off Hulu tonight. Still only the 1/2 hour episodes. Was reading about Jennifer Sky; sad to hear that she had such severe health problems that she became more or less uninsurable, scaring off the majority of acting work she could get. She's now working on a writing degree.